


Damage Control

by frorals



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Slow Burn, they're secretly in love w each other but iris doesn't know it yet, westallen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-11-07 14:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11060901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frorals/pseuds/frorals
Summary: "At first, I thought it was ridiculous because you know how it always ends up in the movies – the girl has a crush on a guy, gets a fake boyfriend, and then accidentally falls in love with the fake boyfriend – but then I realized you’re the perfect guy. You’re my best friend so it’ll be believable and we don’t have any feelings for each other, so it’ll be no strings attached!"aka the fake dating westallen au that no one asked for





	1. Iris

Okay, so maybe this shouldn’t be as big of a deal as it is, but not having a boyfriend in high school is pretty much like social suicide to Iris West. She’s on the cheer team, a senior, and hopelessly boyfriend-less. If her life was a game of ‘which one doesn’t belong,’ the one thing about her that has got to go is her status as single. Preferably before homecoming.

And it’s not even like she’s ugly. Sure, she’s not the most beautiful or the most endowed girl on campus when it came to breasts or ass, but she takes pride in being a solid eight. She dresses nicely enough and she makes sure that both her hair and eyelashes are curled to perfection. So, she’s still a little confused as to why she’s never had real boyfriend (the one in second grade definitely did _not_ count).

“Iris,” Barry says, fumbling with his backpack and struggling to keep up with her as she walks away from her (okay, _their_ , but it’s basically hers anyway; he lets her use it whenever she wants to, God bless him) car. “Plenty of people don’t date in high school. It’s normal. No one even cares that you don’t have a boyfriend!”

“Shhh!” She says, covering his mouth before looking around to see if anyone had been eavesdropping on their conversation. “People can hear you, Barry!”

“Okay, whatever,” Barry says, peeling her hands off his lips. He reaches up to adjust his glasses. “My point is – the right time will come; you don’t need to force anything to happen. Any guy would be lucky to have you. Like, really lucky.”

She whips her head around to look at the boy walking beside her. He’s wearing a gray cardigan, a white t-shirt peeking out from underneath his half unbuttoned plaid shirt, skinny jeans and a pair of Converse that look like they’ve seen their final days. All in all, he’s average, cute in a boyish kind of way even, and there’s no way Iris should believe anything he says because she _knows_ him. He’s the kid who grew up across the hall from her. And she knows him enough that she doesn’t take anything he says about relationships seriously. No offense.

“Maybe to you, okay?” Iris says, opening her locker. “I’m just tired of waiting. I’ve been waiting my entire life. I’m ready to fall in love with…” She trails off, eyes focused somewhere off in the distance. Barry follows her gaze to where Eddie Thawne, the star quarterback of Central City High’s football team, is standing with his friends.

“Oh,” Barry says, “so this is about Pretty Boy.”

“OMG!” she says. “Don’t call him that in school! It’s embarrassing.”

“But this is about him, right?” he asks.

Iris presses her forehead against her locker door and sighs. “It’s just – I’ve watched all of these movies about love and high school and the characters are all like ‘wow, what a great feeling!’ And I want that wow feeling, you know?”

Barry nods. “Yeah, I –”

He’s interrupted by the five-minute warning bell and then Iris is hugging him goodbye as they depart to their respective first periods. She’s about halfway to class when someone calls, “Iris!” And she already knows who it is before she even turns around. Quickly adjusting her hair, she plasters a smile on her face and turns in greeting, praying that he can’t tell that she’s internally freaking out about being late to class.

Eddie smiles at her – he’s _always_ smiling, she’s never seen him _not_ smile – and says, “Hey, how are you?”

“I’m good,” she nods. Her cheeks are beginning to hurt from smiling so hard. “Absolutely great. What’s up?”

“So I’m having a party at my house this weekend. It’s going to be awesome. Drinks, a DJ, awful barbeque, the whole works. You wanna come?” He asks. He’s looking at her with a hopeful expression, eyebrows raised the slightest bit in anticipation. And his eyes – Iris has never seen eyes like his. They’re the most unique shade of blue. Cerulean, maybe? “Iris?” he calls.

“Uh.” She says, broken out of her thoughts. “I have to check with my dad first, but I’ll definitely try to be there.”

“Just let me know, okay? I’ll text you the details.”

“Alright,” she grins. “I, um, got to get to class? So I’ll see you around, I guess.”

“See you around, West.” He winks before walking away from her.

Iris pinches herself to make sure she’s not dreaming. “ _Ouch_ ,” she says, “definitely not dreaming.” And then she smiles because Eddie Thawne just invited her to his party. At his house. And he’s going to text her!

Her excitement distracts her from the fact that she’s considerably late to first period. Once the bell rings, she inwardly curses at the prospect of having to do the walk of shame into class. And even though she tries her hardest to be inconspicuous when she enters, tip-toeing between the desks when the teacher’s back is turned, Mr. Jackson still notices her late arrival.

“Miss West,” he says, “Glad you decided to grace us with your presence on this fine morning. Care to explain what you thought was more important than my class?”

 _Shit_ , she curses in her mind. How is she going to get out of this one? She couldn’t flat out say, ‘Oh, I skipped five minutes of your class to talk to my future boyfriend, no biggie.’ That was a guarantee to get an afterschool detention, which would affect cheer practice and turn into an overall shitstorm.

“Mister, she had an emergency,” Linda Parks pipes up. Honestly, thank God for her beautiful soul.

“Emergency?” he echoes, brows furrowed, obviously not following where this conversation is heading.

“The womanly kind.” Linda replies, causing the class to break out into a fit of giggles.

Iris feels her cheeks start to heat up as she says, “I was just coming from the bathroom, sir.”

Mr. Bones stutters for a moment before he nods. “Okay, Miss West, you’re excused.”

Iris sits down next to Linda and sends her a grateful smile before taking out her class materials and spreading them on her desk. She’s honestly trying to pay attention to the lesson about the election of 1800, but for some reason her mind decides to occupy itself with something else besides how Thomas Jefferson won the presidency by a landslide. Her attention is caught on some _one_ else, rather. Eddie Thawne, to be specific.

“Would anyone like to answer why the Fourteenth Amendment was so important?” Mr. Jackson asks, looking around for his next victim. His eyes settle on Iris, who is busy tracing her pen across the pages in her notebook. She almost jumps out of her desk when he says, “Miss West?”

She looks up at him and realizes that most of the class is looking at her right now. She licks her lips, mostly out of nervousness. “I, uh, don’t know.” Some kids in the back of the classroom snicker.

He narrows his eyes at her. “I would advise that you pay attention to the lesson if you’re going to be missing class.” He says, and then he’s on a whole different tangent, but that doesn’t mean Linda Park isn’t concerned that Iris is off her game. It’s almost as if she can sense that something is off with her.

“You normally know all of the answers, West.” Linda whispers once Jackson isn’t paying attention anymore. She’s leaning over Iris’s shoulder, which gives her a good view of Iris’s notes. Linda has to resist the urge to snort at the hearts, doodles, and the ‘Iris + Eddie’ written in bubble letters on the page. “What’s that?” she asks. Iris can practically hear the smirk in her voice.

She frowns and quickly turns the page, but it’s too late. She knows that Linda already saw her doodles and there was no way she was going to let that topic drop. If anything, Linda would just bring it up later that day.

“Nothing,” Iris says under her breath, a hint of red coloring her mocha cheeks. She looks around the classroom before whispering, “We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

Later ends up being seven hours later after Iris is done cheering for the football game. She’s tired – beyond tired actually – and her feet ache with the pain of an oncoming blisters. She just wants to go home and maybe enjoy her new vanilla bath bomb. Any notion of going home, though, is thrown out the window when she hears someone calling out her name from behind her.

“Iris!”

The girl in question turns to see Linda bounding towards her, her cheer uniform disheveled and cheer bow perched precariously on top of her head. Iris really should have known better. There was no way that her best friend would forget about the conversation that she promised they would have, especially when it contained the likes of Eddie Thawne.

“Hey, Linda,” Iris says, adjusting the duffel bag on her shoulder. “What’s up?”

Linda settles her with a knowing look. “You know what’s up.”

“The sky?” Iris jokes. Linda sends her another steely look and fake punches her shoulder.

“Why didn’t you tell me you have a crush on Eddie Thawne?!”

“I just … didn’t think to mention it?” She says but it comes out more like a question. And then the next sentences out of her mouth are word vomit. “It’s not a big deal, Linda. I don’t even like him that much. Anyways, it’s never gonna happen. He’s waaay out of my league and I didn’t want to get my hopes up by thinking that I have a chance. Which I don’t. Because I’m me. And he’s him, you know?”

“ _Girl_.” Linda says and okay, so _maybe_ Iris does have the biggest crush in the world on Eddie Thawne. “You have to get at him.”

“He invited me to his party this weekend.”

“Really? That’s great, now all you have to do is slide into his DM’s.”

Iris ignores her word choice and instead asks, “And how do I do that?”

“You have to grab his attention. Make him think you’re unattainable. Date Barry.”

Iris is listening intently until Linda reaches the last part. At the mention of Barry’s name, her jaw nearly falls to her ratty old white cheer shoes. Date Barry? No way. Iris is pretty sure he doesn’t even know how to interact with the opposite gender. And even though he’s cute and probably the sweetest guy she knows besides her father, she’s never seen him in that light.

“Did you actually just hear yourself?” Iris asks once she gets over the initial shock. “You just told me to date _Barry Allen_ , the boy who grew up just across the hall from me. That’s, like, against everything I know. And I’m not going to play with his emotions – he’s my best friend.”

“Okay, whatever, just like fake-date him. He’s cute in a nerdy kind of way. And he already worships the ground you walk on.”

“No, he does not!” Iris says indignantly, folding her arms over her chest.

At that exact moment, Linda’s phone decides to ring and she answers with an over exaggerated roll of the eyes – probably her mother asking where she is at this time of night – and then, before Iris can register what’s happening Linda is giving her rushed cheek kisses as she says, “Sorry, babe, gotta go. Love you!” and then she’s running across the school parking lot to her car.

On the drive home, Iris mulls over what Linda said. She can definitely see where Linda is coming from. She knows boys think differently than girls. A girl would see a boy in a relationship and pretty much leave it alone. A guy, however, finds a girl more attractive when they’re taken. Seeing her with Barry would make Eddie actually notice her. It’s basically a guarantee that Eddie will inevitably want to be with her.

All she needs to do is get Barry’s consent, which could go either way. He could say “No, I really need to focus on my grade in AP Physics. It’s slipping to a low A.” Or he could say, “Yes, of course! Anything for my best friend.” And to be honest, she would completely get it if he said no. She’s asking for a lot. She’s pretty much going to beg him to lie to the whole entire school on her behalf. He would literally be the most selfless person if he did happen to say yes.

Iris just needs to ask. 

♡ ♡ ♡ 

Iris opens the front door to find Barry’s long frame sprawled out on the couch, one arm above his head so that the material of his shirt slides up, allowing her to see the pale skin there. She swallows – whether it’s because of nerves or something else, she doesn’t know. It’s late – she’s just coming home from a football game and whenever her dad isn’t home, he normally stays up to make sure she’s okay – but that doesn’t mean that she’s not surprised to see him laying there. She was sort of hoping he’d be sleeping in his bed by now. Then she wouldn’t have to go through with her plan.

“Hey,” she says, her fingertips playing with the frayed edge of her cheerleading uniform.

“Hey, Iris,” Barry pauses the TV to look at her and moves so that there’s enough room for her to sit next to him. His green eyes watch her intently as she sits, her skirt riding up as she does so. “What’s up?”

Her brown eyes settle on his. She decides to rip the band aid off fast.

“I don’t want this to sound weird or anything, but I need you to be my fake boyfriend.” She says, rushing out the last part.

Barry nearly chokes on air. “Wha … Wait – your what?”

He’s wearing a look of disbelief, so Iris repeats herself. “I need you to be my fake boyfriend,” she says a little slower and Barry swallows, his hand coming up to scratch at the back of his neck.

“Iris – are you sure?” He asks, genuinely confused. “Is someone forcing you to do this? Are you being bullied or something?”

She brushes a strand of her hair behind her ear and bites her lip, trying to find a way to tell him the information running through her head without sounding like a complete fool.

“I was actually talking to Linda earlier today about Eddie –”

“Pretty Boy?” Barry says with a raised eyebrow and she nods.

“—and she was telling me how the easiest way for me to get his attention is to make him think I’m unattainable. And at first, I thought it was ridiculous because you know how it always ends up in the movies – the girl has a crush on a guy, gets a fake boyfriend, and then accidentally falls in love with the fake boyfriend – but then I realized you’re the perfect guy. You’re my best friend so it’ll be believable and we don’t have any feelings for each other, so it’ll be no strings attached.” Iris says with the biggest grin on her face, all sparkling and jumping with excitement. “It’s perfect.”

She waits for him to answer, hands clasped in front of her and her eyes widened in hopes that he says yes. He seems to be thinking very hard about the whole situation, but eventually he cracks and says, “Okay, I’ll do it for you. Not because I actually think it’ll work or anything.”

The squeal that Iris makes as she hugs him is almost deafening. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you!” She smiles.

“So, when are we starting this fake-dating thing?” Barry asks.

“Um, this weekend?”

“This weekend?” he repeats.

“Yeah,” she says, “Eddie invited me to his party.”

“Are you sure about that? It’s so soon and I’ve never been to a party before…”

“Bear, no worries. I can help you figure out what to wear while we go over the details of our relationship. We got this, okay?”

“Okay,” he says.

And even though Iris is pretending that she has everything under control, deep down she has the underlying fear that eventually this will all spiral out of control and come to bite her in the ass. But, hey, gotta stay positive, right?


	2. Barry

If you would have asked Barry Allen how he wished to spend his Saturday night, he would’ve said anywhere but a party. Not that he doesn’t enjoy the company, but sometimes he's a bit socially awkward and being around people isn’t exactly his forte. That was what he intended on telling Iris when she’d asked him to attend Eddie Thawne’s party with her, but he’d always had a struggle saying no to her.

Example: the whole fake-dating situation.

For the record, he hadn't expected Iris to ask him such a thing, though he wonders why it's such a surprise that she had blurted something like that out. She's impulsive and headstrong, and Barry knows that he should have said no for many reasons, but seeing her eyes light up when he said yes made it feel like anything but wrong.

“Dammit,” Cisco curses.

“What?” Barry says, sticking his head out from where he’s hidden in his closet. Barry has him on a video call on his laptop so he can talk to him while finishing getting dressed for the party he’s still having mixed feelings about going to.

“I just died in my video game. Anyways,” Cisco says, taking a sip of his Big Gulp, “you’re really going to go through with the whole fake dating your best friend thing?”

“Yeah,” Barry says, pulling a gray sweater over his head. He turns to face the mirror and shrugs at his appearance. He turns to Cisco, gesturing to his clothes. Cisco gives him a thumbs up. “She really wants me to do it and she’s my best friend. As her best friend, I just want her to be happy, you know?”

“Believe that if it helps you sleep at night, but I think you’re doing it for another reason.”

“Like what?” Barry challenges, ruffling his hair.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the fact that you’re in love with her and you’re hoping that she’ll fall in love with you.” Cisco deadpans.

“Maybe she will.”

“Dude,” he says incredulously. He sets his drink on his desk and settles Barry with a look over the camera like ‘ _are you serious right now_?’ “You’re a great guy and she’s great, too, but you’re gonna get your heart broken, Barry. You always look on the bright side of things and I’m your bro and I just want you to know that there’s a possibility you’ll get hurt. A really high possibility.”

The thing is he _knows_ Cisco is right. Iris had already insinuated that she wouldn’t catch any feelings towards him when she said that they were strictly best friends with no emotional involvement at all. Still, a little piece of him wants to believe that life is like how it’s portrayed in the movies and he get gets the girl at the end. However, with his luck, he won’t ever get the girl.

“I knew the risks when I agreed to date her, okay?”

Barry startles when there’s knocking at his door, shutting his laptop closed, and Iris pops her head into the room. She gives him a weird look and he wonders if she’d managed to hear any part of the earlier conversation. Instead, she says, “Hey, are you ready? Dad wants to say goodbye to both of us.”

Barry nods. “Yeah, I’ll be down in a sec.”

“Digging the sweater, by the way,” she says before leaving the room.

Barry lets out a deep breath and opens his laptop. “Sorry, Cisco, I gotta go. Iris and Joe are waiting on me.”

“Okay, but remember what I told you. Be careful!” he shouts into the webcam right before Barry hangs up the call. He heads down the stairs, taking them two at a time, and finds Joe and Iris waiting for him. He can tell that by the way Joe is standing that the two of them are about to get the over-protective-dad/I'm-a-detective talk.

“Is there going to be drinking?” Joe asks. Barry looks to Iris, mostly because she’s the one who has the most experience with parties like these.

“Probably,” Iris says. When she sees her dad’s worried look, she quickly adds, “But Barry and I are super responsible and aware that underage drinking is not acceptable.”

“Or legal.” Barry interjects.

Joe gives them a raised eyebrow. “You’re aware that I am a detective, right? And that I could report that Thawne boy for underage drinking.”

“But you won’t because I’m your daughter and you love me.” Iris says, grinning cheekily.

Joe laughs, wrapping his arms around her. “Yeah, let’s go with that.” He says. “You kids have fun, alright.”

Iris cheers in excitement, grabbing the car keys off the hook and heading out the door. Barry moves to follow her, but ceases when Joe calls his name. He turns around to face him, saying, “Yes, sir?”

Joe points in the direction of Iris. “You watch after my baby, okay?”

“Of course, Joe.” Barry says without hesitation.

“Don’t do anything stupid!” He yells after them as they drive away.

 

* * *

 

“Iris,” Barry says once they’re in the car. He’s driving, but he can tell that she’s still looking at him. “You know I’ve never been to a party like this. I have no idea what to even say.”

“Just don’t talk about school.” Iris says. “Unless it’s football. Everyone loves football. And don’t stare at people. They’ll know it’s your first party.”

“Okay, okay.” Barry says mostly to himself. “No school, football, and no staring. Got it.”

They pull up to the cul-de-sac Eddie’s house is situated on. His house is huge, much bigger than the West’s, and is surrounded by a perfectly manicured lawn. It reminds Barry of those fancy houses on HGTV, the ones with three car garages and eight bedrooms. They park on the curb behind several other cars and Barry gets out to open the car door for Iris.

“Damn, this place is  _nice_ ,” Iris mutters as they walk up the lawn.

“It is,” Barry agrees.

“Iris!” Eddie exclaims from the front porch, holding his arms out in a warm greeting. There’s a red solo cup in one of his hands – Barry suspects that it’s booze judging from the amount of intoxicated teens surrounding him. “You made it!”

“Of course! I couldn’t miss the greatest party of the century!” Iris responds, smiling. Eddie gives Barry the once-over and Iris must notice that he tenses up a bit because she adds, “I brought Barry along, too. Hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s cool. Hey, Barry.” Eddie says. “Come on in. There’s food, drinks, and a beer pong table over there. Oh, and I think Linda’s here too, somewhere.” He turns around to face them and eyes where their hands are intertwined. “So, how long have you two been together?”

Barry freezes. That’s the one thing he forgot to ask about in case someone questioned the details of their relationship. He looks to Iris and hopes they’re on the same page.

“Three months,” Iris says at the same time Barry says, “Four months.”

Definitely not on the same page.

Eddie tilts his head to the side as if he’s questioning their responses. “You sure?” he asks, taking a sip of his drink.

Iris turns to Barry. “We admitted our feelings for each other four months ago, remember? But we didn’t start officially dating until that one date… Which one was it again, babe?” She squeezes his hand mostly as a call for help.

“It was, uh, dinner and a movie. We saw that movie about that one superhero.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Iris says. “And then you kissed me during the end credits.”

“That’s cute,” Eddie muses. Before he gets a chance to say anything else, he’s being pulled away by one of his jock friends who mentions something about some guy and a broken window.

Once he leaves, both Iris and Barry visibly deflate, releasing huge sighs. Iris runs her hand through her hair, “That was really fucking close.”

“Tell me about it.” Barry glances around the room and sees a crowd of people dancing to the music blasting. He gestures towards them and asks, “Wanna dance?”

Iris nods enthusiastically and practically drags him to the dance floor. It's an upbeat song and much faster than the kind of music he's used to dancing to with a partner. He'd only offered to dance with Iris because he was pretty sure that was the type of thing that couples did at parties. The only real experience he had dancing with a girl was the one slow dance he did with Caitlin Snow at last year's homecoming. So, when Iris turns to face him, she easily reads his expression as one of imminent fear and takes pity on him.

“Put your hands on my hips,” she instructs. Barry places his hands there, a little unsure. He looks into her eyes to make sure that she’s not uncomfortable or anything. “Relax, Bear, it’s okay.”

“Sorry,” he apologizes. “It’s just –”

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m preparing you for your future girlfriend.” She jokes. "Okay, so now, just kind of move your hips to the music. Yeah, like that."

He nods and tries not to focus on how into it Iris is getting. Like he knew she could dance, but  _God_. She’s practically grinding on him. He literally has to remind himself that she's not his girlfriend and that she's putting on a show for Eddie.

They dance like that for a few more minutes until Linda walks up to them and whisks Iris away in a fit of whispers and giggles, leaving Barry alone. He wanders through the house looking for Iris but once he accidentally walks into a couple mid-coitus, he gives up and stumbles into the kitchen. He’s hungry, so he helps himself to a serving of chips. A random person hands him a bottle of beer, which he has no intention of drinking, so he leaves it sitting on the kitchen counter.

He’s minding his own business when someone comes up from behind him and says, “Barry Allen.” He turns to find Becky Cooper standing there smirking at him. Her red hair is slicked back into a ponytail and her green eyes scan him up and down as she saddles up beside him.

“I didn’t know parties were much of your scene.” She comments, plucking the chip he was about to eat from his hand.

“They aren’t. I’m here with Iris.”

“Lucky girl.” Becky says off-handedly. She cocks her head to the side. “Do you know where the beer is?”

“Here, you can have mine,” Barry offers. “I wasn’t going to drink it anyway.”

“Wow, cute and chivalrous, too.” She smirks, bringing the drink to her lips. He watches her and briefly wonders why Becky is talking to him. They don’t exactly revolve in the same social circle. He waits a second before biting the bullet.

“I don’t mean to sound rude, but why are you talking to me? We’re not exactly friends and you’ve said – what? – like three sentences to me in four years, so I’m just a little curious.”

“So, what, Barry? I can’t talk to you?”

Barry feels his ears grow hot. “That’s not – What I meant was –”

“Chill out, I was kidding, Allen. I’m talking to you because you’re a nice guy and you seem interesting. Plus, you’re cute.”

“Well, I, uh, have a girlfriend.”

“Really?” Becky says. “Hmm, lemme guess … Iris West.”

“Yeah.”

“You two are good together. Pretty sure the whole school saw that coming, though. Everyone knows that when a guy and a girl are best friends, they always end up hooking up. Too bad it never lasts.”

Barry frowns. “What do you mean?”

“You know too much about each other. Doesn’t give you the chance to fall in love with them.”

“I think it gives you more of a chance to love them, though.”

“You’re such a romantic.” She cooes.

Barry blushes, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. “I mean, I guess you could say that.”

“You know, it sure looks like Iris is having a lot of fun.” Becky says, elbowing him in the side. He quirks an eyebrow questioningly before he follows her gaze to where Iris is standing on the Thawne’s dining table and is practically giving a strip show.

“ _Shit_ ,” Barry curses underneath his breath.

 He pushes his way through the crowd of people surrounding the table Iris is on. She’s swinging her arms around in what he assumes to be dancing. “Iris, what are you doing?” he shouts over the loud music and obnoxious people.

“I’m dancing,” she says as if the way she’s moving her hips makes it obvious. “Come,” she makes grabby hands towards him with the one hand that’s not holding a cup of liquor, “dance with me, Bear!”

Someone bumps into him and he steadies himself by holding onto the table. “Iris, I think you should get down. You’re drunk and your dad is going to be so mad at me if I let you do anything you regret. We should go home.”

“But the party’s just getting started.” She takes her attention off of him and turns to face everyone in the room with outstretched arms. “Let’s get this party started!” She yells and a couple of guys start cheering her on, mostly because she’s about to pull her top off.

Before she can embarrass herself any further, he tosses her over his shoulder and carries her to a less crowded part of the house. He sets her down, steadying her by wrapping his arm around her waist when she loses her balance. “Jeez, how much did you drink, Iris?” he questions.

“I don’t know.” She says honestly. “Five beers, maybe?”

“Oh my God, Joe is gonna kill me.”

“Shh!” Iris places her hands over his mouth. “He won’t know unless you tell him!”

“I think you throwing up in the bathroom at 1 A.M is gonna give it away, Iris!”

“Barry,” Iris says, tugging at the sleeve of his sweater. “Eddie is watching us.”

He gives her a confused look, not really sure where this conversation is heading. Iris is smiling up at him with lidded eyes and under the warm lighting, Barry’s aware of how beautiful she looks right now. She looks beautiful all the time, but the red top she’s wearing really compliments her skin tone. “Um..?” he says intelligently.

“Kiss me.”

Barry tries to hide his look of shock by bringing his cup of soda to his lips. Apparently, he does a pretty crappy job at hiding his emotions because Iris frowns, poking his cheek. “What?” she drawls, poking him in the side. “You think I’m a bad kisser, Bartholomew Allen?”

He groans, feeling his face heat up from embarrassment. “No, it’s not that. I just really think we should go home right now.”

“You’re no fun.” Iris says. And then throws up at his feet.

 

* * *

  

Barry spends the night holding Iris’ hair back as she vomits into the toilet. He sits with her, holding the cup of water up to her lips whenever she needs a sip. Eventually, she stops throwing up and they just end up sitting next to each other on the bathroom floor, their backs pressed against the cold surface of the bathtub behind them.

“I’m sorry,” Iris says, breaking the silence between them. Barry turns his head to look at her.

“Sorry for what?”

“For getting drunk and forcing you to clean up after me. You’re probably super disappointed.”

“I’m not.” He says honestly.

She waits a beat. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” he nods.

“So,” Iris bumps her knee against his, “what did you end up doing while I was getting drunk out of my mind?”

“I talked to Becky Cooper.” Iris pulls a face and Barry laughs. “Oh, come on, she isn’t that bad.”

“She’s a bitch and you know it.”

“Just because she stole your pencil box in the first grade doesn’t mean she’s a bitch, Iris.”

“Well, it wasn’t your pencil box.”

He remembers back then when things weren’t so complicated. When he had both his parents and didn’t know Iris West. Still, he wouldn’t change his experiences for anything in the world because they made him into the person he is today. He lost a lot, but he gained so much more than he could ever wish for.

Iris rests her head on his shoulder, gazing up at him. “Penny for your thoughts?”

He looks at her. “I was just thinking about how lucky I am to have you and Joe in my life. If it wasn’t for you two, I could’ve been going down a completely different path right now.”

“I know,” she whispers, “my dad and I could be too, but the universe gave us you.”

He watches as the corner of her lips lift up into a smile. She reaches up to rest the palm of her hand against his cheek. He melts into her touch, closing his eyes. He wishes he could frame this moment forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry I took so long to post, i'm a procrastinator and a perfectionist which doesn't help me update any faster. hope you enjoyed this chapter, though. and happy fourth of july if you live in the united states!


	3. Iris

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things get hella awkward between barry and iris.

Barry is avoiding her. She’s sure of it.

What gives him away is the way he bristles when she walks into the room, his eyes wide as if he’s surprised to see her in her own home, then he tears his eyes away from her when she meets his gaze. It’s been this way for three whole days, since the party, and even now he still can’t seem to look in her direction for more than one second. She wonders briefly if it’s her imagination, but her suspicions are confirmed on Monday morning, when he wanders into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his tired eyes.

She’s sitting comfortably on one of the barstools by the kitchen counter, silent as she holds her mug of coffee close to her mouth, the steam of it warming her up as the beginnings of fall nip at her fingertips. She doesn’t say anything at first, mostly because she isn’t a morning person, just watches him as he moves through the kitchen in his pajamas, hair tousled from the night before. He grabs a bowl from the cupboard and pours a bowl of Cheerio’s, his favorite. Then, he takes the milk jug out from the fridge and when he turns around to pour it into his bowl, he sees Iris sitting there and startles, milk flying every which way.

In a normal situation, she would have maybe laughed and teased him about it, but instead, the corners of her lips turn down. She stares, waiting for him to say something first.

“I didn’t see you there,” he says slowly and almost painfully. His eyes flicker to the mess he’s made, away from her, and there it is. The unsureness, like he’s walking on eggshells around her.

It’s a little unnerving because she thought that they were long past the point of awkwardness. They’re best friends who grew up under the same roof for crying out loud. He knows everything about her just like she knows everything about him. So why has he been so distant lately?

She wonders if it was the party. Sure, she’d been drunk out of her mind for the duration of the time, but she’d remember if anything had happened between them, especially if it was Barry. _But_ she had asked him to kiss her. Maybe that was his issue. It made sense, considering that they hadn’t had any substantial conversation since the night of the party besides simple small talk.

She remembers reading an article somewhere about how alcohol brings out the desires of the soul. Maybe he thought that she had actually _meant_ it, that she wanted him to kiss her for some reason other than attracting Eddie’s attention. Having real feelings wasn’t a part of the deal they made – she specifically remembers saying no strings attached – so maybe now Barry thought she actually _liked_ him and was trying to let her down easy, keeping his distance in hopes that she wouldn’t like him anymore.

“Barry,” she says, setting her mug down with a thud. His eyes are drawn to where her fingers are curled around it. “I don’t actually … _like_ you.” Her tongue pushes out the last part a little reluctantly, like the words are being pulled from deep inside of her.

And now it seems as if she’s made things worse because now her thoughts are out in the open and he’s taking a step back. His brows crease, like he doesn’t understand what she’s getting at. “What?” he asks.

She taps her fingers against her mug once, twice, then wrinkles her nose. “I don’t know … I just thought –” She takes a heaving breath, for the first time ever feeling like she’s out of control and doesn’t know what to say. “You’ve been really distant since the party and I was thinking maybe I gave you the wrong impression when I asked you to kiss me. I don’t want you avoiding me because you think I have feelings for you or anything. I just want things to be normal between us again.”

“Iris,” he murmurs. “That wasn’t – _isn’t_ what I was thinking.”

“Then what _were_ you thinking?”

There’s a moment of silence where he just looks at her, his eyes scanning her face. He looks like he wants to tell her something, but he’s hesitating. He opens his mouth to speak, but then he’s looking over her shoulder, where Joe is walking through the doorway. They all say their good mornings, conversing a bit, and when Iris glances back at Barry, who’s leaning against the counter eating his bowl of cereal, she realizes that the moment’s passed and she’ll never know what he was about to say.

 

* * *

 

Iris has never been so excited to see the drab walls of Central City High. Not only to possibly see Eddie, but also to get away from the choking awkwardness of the car ride with Barry. He was talking to her now, but there was still that underlying tension between them. The entire time she wanted to bash her head into the car window and somehow, she’d managed to make it through the school’s doors.

She settles into her seat in first period and not even five minutes into the lecture, something hits the back of her head. Looking down, she sees a wad of paper that must’ve come from behind her. She turns around to see Linda gesturing to her phone exaggeratedly. Iris rolls her eyes before fishing her phone out of her backpack, her screen lit up with several unread text messages all from Linda.

_girl!!!_

_so what happened at the party after i left??_

_did you and pretty boy fuck???_

_DID YOU AND BARRY KISS_

_I’M SHOOK_

Thinking about what happened between her and Eddie makes Iris want to groan. Literally nothing between them happened besides her getting drunk to impress him. He had poured himself some vodka and said something about her probably not drinking alcohol. She didn’t want to seem uninteresting, so she’d taken the whole bottle of vodka and downed it in one swing. The look of curiosity he’d given her was well worth it, but the aftermath wasn’t. She cringes at the thought of it.

 **no and no,** she texts back.

 _why not?_ Sent with a broken heart emoji.

**i don’t even know pretty boy that much! and anyways, i’m pretty sure barry hates me now.**

Okay, so maybe she’s being overdramatic and Barry doesn’t _actually_ hate her, but she’s about 99% sure that he’ll never speak to her again, which is probably worse than him hating her because then she’d actually know what she did wrong.

_IRIS WEST_

_WHAT DID YOU DO_

_it must be bad bc that boy loves you more than he loves chemistry and that’s A LOT_

**i was drunk and asked him to kiss me**

_and he didn’t want to kiss you wtf?_

**he didn't tell me why he was just super awk so i told him i didn’t like like him & he got all weird and stuff **

**so yeah, he hates me**

_LMAO_

Even from this distance, she can hear Linda snickering behind her. She wants to know why she’s laughing at her because having her best friend not talk to her is pretty much a state of emergency.

 **what??** she types back quickly.

_you’re dumb af lol_

**wdym???**

“Miss West,” Mr. Jackson calls and Iris looks up from her phone already knowing what’s coming. “What’s so interesting on your phone?”

“Nothing,” she says, feeling her face warm up. At that exact moment, her phone decides to buzz and Mr. Jackson raises an eyebrow as if to say, ‘Really?’ She offers him a apologetic grimace.

“Detention.” He says. “After school.”

“But I have cheer practice!”

“Or would you rather get written up for disrupting my class?”

She wants to argue so badly, but being late for practice is better than explaining a referral to her dad. So, she settles back into her seat, arms crossed over her chest, and glares at the devil incarnate himself. 

* * *

 

Detention ends up not being as bad as she thought. It’s basically Mr. Jackson sitting at his desk reading some boring book about Alexander Hamilton and her doodling in her notebook. When it’s finally time for her leave, she practically sprints to the gym to change into her cheer clothes, the usual Soffe shorts and school spirit shirt. As she’s walking out of the girl’s locker room, hopping on one foot to pull her shoe on, she bumps into a figure that smells like sweat and grime, falling on her ass.

“I am so sorry!” a deep voice cries as they bend down to make sure she’s okay.

She tosses her hair back from where it’s fallen into her face and huffs. “I’m fine. I’ve had worse falls at cheer practice, which is actually where I’m supposed to be.” She responds, then tilts her head up to see that it’s Eddie she’s bumped into.

“It’s my fault, anyways. I should’ve been watching where I was going,” she quickly adds once he’s helped her off the floor. “What are you doing out here, though? Aren’t you supposed to be at football practice?”

He nods. “Yeah, Coach Singh made me go to the athletic trainer to get my ankle wrapped.” He explains, gesturing to the bandage on his foot. “He said something about not wanting me to get hurt before the big game.”

“The one against Liberty High?”

“That’s the one. Can’t be on the bench for Homecoming.”

Iris sees her chance and takes it.

“You’re absolutely right,” she says. “So, do you have a date for Homecoming yet?” She questions, trying not to seem like she’s internally freaking out. Linda would be so proud.

“Not at the moment. I’m just waiting for the right person to ask. You’re going with Barry, though?”

It takes a moment for the question to register, but then she’s trying to cover up that fact by saying, “Yeah, totally! I mean, he _is_ my boyfriend and that’s what couples do, right? Go to dances together or whatever.” So much for being smooth, now she just sounds like a maniac.

Eddie laughs. “How are things between you two?”

“Uh,” she trails off, thinking about how things are currently going with Barry. “Pretty good.”

“That’s great,” he says. “I’ll talk to you later, though, Iris. I’ve gotta get back to practice before Coach sends someone for me.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” she smiles before they both say their goodbyes. Once he’s out of eyesight, Iris falls back against the wall, letting out a deep breath. At least she spoke to Eddie without making a complete fool of herself this time. And he did say he’ll talk to her later, she recalls with a smile.

That smile, however, is quickly wiped away when she remembers that she’s very _very_ late for cheer practice.

“Damn it,” she curses under her breath.

* * *

 

“You’re late,” Becky Cooper announces as Iris tries to sneak into the gym, the sound of her cheer shoes squeaking against the waxed wooden floors giving her away. All the girls stop mid-stunt to see who’s unlucky enough to be at the receiving end of one of Becky’s usual verbal beatings. She thinks that because she’s blonde, pretty, and the captain of the cheer team that she can talk to the girls any way she wants, but Iris _really_ doesn’t want to deal with her bullshit today. Iris is pretty sure she has a degree in how to get under people’s skin.

“I had detention, Becky,” she responds. “Not everyone is as privileged as you when it comes to getting out of punishments.” Everyone on the team knows that Becky isn’t as innocent as she looks. She just knows how to worm her way out of getting into trouble.

Becky just smirks and for a second, Iris imagines her red lipstick as blood. “That’s no way to talk to your captain, West. Twenty-five laps,” she commands. When Iris doesn’t move, scowling, she sets her hands on her hips. “Now!” she barks.

Iris rolls her eyes, but reluctantly starts to jog around the edge of the gym. She can feel Linda’s eyes on her. She glances over her shoulder to see her friend mouth ‘what a bitch!’ and if she weren’t running, Iris would’ve laughed. She tries to focus instead on finishing her laps, reaching twenty-five and leaning over to place her hands on her knees, out of breath.

“Maybe if you laid off the Reese’s you’d be able to run those laps!” Becky calls, laughing. Her three followers – Heather, Veronica, and Stephanie – try to hide their giggles behind their hands. If possible, Iris glares even harder at them.

The entire practice is torture. Becky purposely gives her a hard time, making her a base for one of the worst flyers on the team. The girl's form is absolutely horrid and she lands wrong several times, landing on Iris more than once. She's pretty sure that she gets five bruises in ten minutes alone. Gritting her teeth, she powers through the rest of practice because honestly, there's no room for her to complain. She was already late as is and opening her mouth about this will only make things worse.

After what feels like an eternity, practice is over and she makes her way back to the locker rooms with the rest of the girls. Linda catches up to her, brushing her fingers against Iris's arm. She turns to look at her and sees the look of pity in Linda's eyes, like she feels bad for the way Becky has been treating her. She hates that look because it reminds her of all the holidays she's spent motherless. 

"Don't look at me that way."

"She shouldn't have said that."

"Well, she did." Iris snaps back.

Linda reaches for Iris's hand to pull her to a stop and force Iris to look at her. Her eyes burn bright with anger as she says, "That doesn't mean that she was right to basically call you fat, which you aren't by the way. She's a bitch who puts other people down to make herself look better. Don't let her get to you, okay?"

"Okay," Iris says, nodding.

She's honestly so grateful for the girl standing in front of her. No matter how much she acts like the words Becky throws at her doesn't hurt, it does, and Linda is one of the few girls on the team who actually checks to make sure that she's okay. Without Linda and her utter love for the sport, Iris would've turned in her uniform a long time ago.

* * *

 

Once she’s home and showered, Iris practically melts into her bed and fuzzy socks. The stress of today – Barry, detention, and Becky – have left her drained of all the energy in her body. She just wants to go to sleep for, like, a thousand years.

A knock at her door has her sitting up in bed. “Come in,” she calls, expecting to see her dad, but it’s actually Barry. He steps into the room, smiling sheepishly at her.

“Hey,” he says softly.

“Hi.”

“I, uh, wanted to apologize for earlier. I made things awkward and I’m sorry, so I brought you your favorite.” He holds up a package of Reese’s, waving it a bit. She smiles at his thoughtfulness. It’s awfully nice of him to do this for her when the reason for all of this is her fault, not his.

“Thank you, Barry.” She takes the candy from him and sets it on her nightstand. When she looks back at him, he’s giving her a look of confusion. “What?” she asks.

“It’s just … you normally eat it right away.” He answers, gesturing towards where she’s put the Reese’s. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”

“No, I’m fine. It was something stupid anyway.”

Even as she says those words, she can hear Becky’s voice in her mind saying, ‘ _Maybe if you laid off the Reese’s_.’ Iris knows she’s not fat by any means. Still, the words have a bit of a sting to them. She remembers in middle school when she had been curvier than the other girls and they’d teased her about her weight, so she joined cheer as a form of exercise. She’s definitely grown into herself now, but those kinds of things never go away completely.

Besides, she doesn’t want to burden Barry any further. She’s already sprung too many things on him and he already has burdens of his own that he has to deal this. Telling him would be too much.

“Well, if this is about … _you know..._ " He trails off, too polite to say the word weight as if that word alone carried the load of years of self-hatred. "You’re perfect the way you are, Iris.” He says, his cheeks turning red in the way that they do whenever he compliments her.

She’s not exactly sure what to say to such nice words from, so she decides to wrap her arms around him in a hug, tucking her face in the crook between his neck and shoulder. His arms come around her to return the embrace, the scent of him filling her nose. “Thank you,” she says into his skin, feeling him shiver beneath her breath. He whispers a soft ‘you’re welcome’ before excusing himself from her room, retreating back into his own.

She watches her door for a second, some part of her missing his warmth and wishing he’d come back to embrace her again. But, she lets that thought slip from her mind as she moves to check her phone. A forgotten message from her earlier conversation with Linda sits at the bottom of her notifications. She clicks on it.

_he likes you_

Iris stares at her phone in confusion. Her mind begins to whirl, those three simple words causing so much thinking.

There’s no way Barry could like her in any romantic kind of way. He doesn’t like girls like her. He likes quiet girls, the ones who are as intelligent as him and enjoys doing things like building the Death Star out of Legos and reading the biography of Harrison Wells. He likes the girls who are a part of the Science National Honors Society, not cheerleaders like Iris.

He doesn’t like her. _Can’t_ like her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't get mad at me for not posting for so long! i've been busy with obsessing over game of thrones (if you're a fan too, it's lit), starting my first job (gross), and starting college (even grosser). 
> 
> also, i live in florida so hurricane irma was a thing but thankfully, she gave me a week of from school that made me write this chapter out of complete and utter boredom. but tbh, i think this chapter turned out pretty well.
> 
> if you want updates on my writing, follow my tumblr ( http://floridagirl.tumblr.com ) and we can also chat about things!!


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